yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 5 General] nikeman513:
Most people got the phone for the Qualcomm 800 CPU. What does this do? It measures the amount of energy the phone is asking for and makes it as efficient as possible for the phone. Works similarly then you see in a V-Tec or Eco-tec transmission in cars. Also, you gave a lot of opinions in your post, when, you said it would be purely objective. That would make it subjective. *note I didn't say purely subjective, because you did put in some data (objective) results.
[Nexus 5 General] TiltedAz:
You can kid yourself but I regularly see substantial difference between the N5's 1080p and my GNex's 720p display and the GNex display is about the same as the Nexus 4. If you don't mind missing video information/detail then it makes sense to save some money on a middle of the road phone or buy a slightly overpriced moto x.

On the contrary, most are pleased with fine details in images and videos. If we weren't, the entire HD imaging industry wouldn't be where it is today. It's not marketing, it's consumer demand.
[Nexus 5 General] blackhand1001:
1080p is nice but I would have actually prefered a 720p display if it had the great view angles and contrast of the 2nd generation nexus 7. The panel on that is much nicer despite only being 323ppi.
[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

I'm not kidding myself I have both phones, I'm not trying to justify not buying a Nexus 5, I already did :)

The entire HD industry was built upon HD Ready TVs, at only 720P in the main to start with, set to retina burning brightness and dynamic contrast out the box so they could be sold with contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 (remember big numbers sell more). The vast majority of people never adjust the TV to true to life settings, and then wonder why anyone with a tan looks orange, even if the tan isn't fake and just accept it! Here in the UK at least, HD broadcasts are so compressed they barely resolve more detail than a standard definition picture should. Our standard definition channels are so compressed they break up regularly into a mosaic of blocks and barely resolve the detail of 360P YouTube clip circa 1995. The vast majority of people don't question the quality, and many thought they were already watching HD just because the TV had an HD sticker on it, and I know a lot of these people. People on the whole don't really care about quality. Marketing swept people towards HD TV, and there are a huge number of people with HD TVs watching nothing more than badly over-compressed standard definition TV and streamed video, none the wiser.

Can a really over compressed 720P video streamed YouTube clip (I don't think they stream 1080P to mobile devices currently) on a 5" display be sharper with more detail when that display is 1080P and not 720P?

If you do mind missing video information than wouldn't want to watch YouTube or any other for mobile compressed video at all, most of the detail is thrown away in compression. Instead you'd sit down with your friends and family, hire or buy the Blu-ray version of a movie, have a good quality HD TV probably adjusted with a DTS AV decoder and surround sound audio, and enjoy the film as it was intended by the director.

For YouTube clips of someone pouring water over their new Nexus 5 or dropping it on to concrete until it smashes, clips of moody cats, or unboxing reviews of the latest gagdet, I think any resolution of 5" display will do just fine for the vast majority of people.:)

My argument really isn't relating to us techy types who pixel peek, but the vast majority of people that are persuaded to buy a new mobile phone on the basis of larger numbers driven by marketing, when in reality the benefits are not that great.

Regards

Phil
[Nexus 5 General] ntice:
The Nexus 4 is actually 1280x768, not 1280x720. Anyway, I agree that it has become a marketing game, with 2560x1440 and higher phone displays already planned. It's questionable even if it doesn't cost a penny, because those extra pixels slow down the screen rendering.
[Nexus 5 General] rican408:
Take a look at the moto x. They made it a 720 display and they were crucified for it. Everyone ignored the benefits and just decided less is not as good. I personally did consider the moto x but I wanted the updated CPU and GPU. From all the reviews I think the moto x has the best frame rates and battery probably due to the 720 display.
[Nexus 5 General] Dungeon47:
I have 20/10 vision and I can tell the difference in clarity at a normal viewing distance easily. It's kind of terrible being able to see individual RGB subpixels on my computer monitor, and I have to force myself to ignore it. The first screen I ever saw that didn't look at all that way was a friend's Galaxy S4. Since then I've been hoping for a Nexus device above 400ppi, which seems to be about where my vision acts normally with pixels.

So for me, in my case it's a welcome improvement, but I can see where you make very valid points, and I really don't see a purpose in going anywhere above a pixel density of about 450-500ppi on any display when seen from a normal viewing angle. Now I hope my computer monitor can catch up one day without costing $5,000 for a 25" screen.
[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

Yes it is shame when marketing drives our desires, marketing people rarely have our own interests at heart, if they ever do. :rolleyes:

Bigger numbers sell. The same applies to the CPU in the Nexus 5 and other phones. 2.3Ghz is advertised for the Nexus 5, yes maybe for 30 seconds or so until it's too hot and throttles down to something half the speed! Those in the know around here just use SetCPU and cap it a lot lower to save battery power and heat in the knowledge that 2.3Ghz is a marketing number that can't be sustained for any length of time in real world use.

We should start becoming a bit wiser to it.

Regards

Phil
[Nexus 5 General] rican408:
Yea I was just reading the thread on thermal throttling yesterday. I thought with such better specs the nexus wouldn't have to try so hard.
[Nexus 5 General] TiltedAz:
There are 1080p videos on youtube and likely more and more in the years to come. My wife is a Pearl Jam fan and we're getting ready for a Pearl Jam concert next week. Check out their "official music video" 'Sirens' in 1080p. You can see strands of hair out of place. It's amazing for a little portable pocket 5" display. Why continue denying the benefit?
[Nexus 5 General] Scotty_Two:
FYI: The Nexus 4's display is 1280x768 so its aspect ratio isn't 16:9 like the N5. The N4 DOES have square pixels and the extra height on the N5 is due to the two having these different ratios.
[Nexus 5 General] italia0101:
Definitely a sharpness difference between my nexus 4 and 5... Imo at least
[Nexus 5 General] abdel12345:
Well I can see the difference on my tablet (nexus 10) compared to the xperia tablet z but those are bigger screens. Im not sure how much different the phone screen will appear to me because of the resolution but I'll wait and see for myself. But so far it seems like it is sharper by what others are saying
[Nexus 5 General] maxpower7:
I was a huge skeptic of 1080p displays on smartphones when they were first announced. I believed all the articles about how the human eye can't see the difference if the density is above 300 ppi, and I thought it was a pointless waste of resources for no perceptible gain.

Then I actually used some 1080p displays and immediately saw the difference. There's really no comparison. The phone can display more info, and text in particular is noticeably smoother. It's not a placebo effect at all - it's an immediately noticeable difference.

That being said, I understand that I'm more sensitive to pixel density than a lot of people. I'm getting really irritated with people posting their own personal opinions and experiences and trying to pretend that they're universal truths. If 720p is good enough for you, more power to ya. But don't tell me that I'm wrong for preferring (and seeing the difference in) 1080p.
[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

Thanks and I did watch, playing both the Nexus 4 and 5 together the video looks equally as good on both. Playing the same video on a 24" 1080P calibrated monitor the warts start to show and I can see that even though it is 1080P, it is the usual compressed YouTube type clip and looks no where near as detailed as 1080P can be. You can't discern the compression artefacts and mosquito noise on a tiny 5" display for the same reason it is very hard to tell apart 720P and 1080P as it is just too small to resolve the differences, and so most clips look good on a 5" display.

It does fair better than most YouTube clips though as it is a wider aspect ratio so less of a picture to compress as it is letter boxed, and isn't particularly complex video footage to compress. I watched at 720P and then at 480P and I could still make out the hairs out of place as it is just shot in a way which makes things like that stand out.

Enjoy the concert, that will be better than watching it on any 5" screen regardless of how many pixels it boasts, I wish I was going. :good:

Like I say I am not knocking the Nexus 5 display, just questioning the marketing of 1080P screens in a 5" form factor. If there is just one person here that reads this and was going to upgrade from the Nexus 4 only because they felt the 1080P display most be so much better than the Nexus 4 720P display, and this thread makes them decide not to, that's great for them to save their money and get better value out of keeping their Nexus 4 for a while longer (after all it will still get KitKat and feel a bit like a new phone for free), then they can put that money saved towards a Nexus 6 or whatever comes along later, which may just have some real technological jumps in other areas that are worth having.

Regards

Phil
[Nexus 5 General] edwpang:
I have Note II with 1280x720 display, it looks perfect fine for me.
[Nexus 5 General] [hfm]:
This. I can tell the difference.
[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

Have you compared the Nexus 4 directly to the Nexus 5?

Yes of course the phone can show more information, but if you only have the same size display and it is just the resolution that increases that information can only be shown if it is smaller. If it is smaller you may end up needing to hold the phone closer to physically see it, not only can that be uncomfortable, or just make people think you are blind as a bat ;), in some respects because the phone is closer to your eyes and text is smaller and rendered using less pixels, you are losing some advantage of having the higher pixel density in the first place.

Typically however what we find is the same amount of information is displayed if the screen is the same size regardless of the increase in resolution, so the higher pixel density just goes towards smoothing the fonts and graphics. They were already pretty well anti-aliased on the Nexus 4, with 720P having more than enough pixels to smooth fonts on a 4.7 inch display.

Google on the Nexus 5 has all the screen fonts rendered to be slightly larger than they are on the Nexus 4, so the opposite of what you have written has happened in reality with the Nexus 5 compared to the 4. Google haven't used the extra pixel density to display more information due to the impractically of doing that for most people. Even the launcher has had the size of icons increased on the Nexus 5.

As it is the first thing most people do when visiting a web page on a smart phone with a 5" display is zoom in.

I wasn't trying to imply I knew of some universal truth and I wasn't trying to create any, if there was a universal truth there would be no point in forums as no would debate or discuss anything :cowboy:

I've asked friends and family of all ages to scrutinise the screen on the Nexus 4 and 5 and make comment about the differences. All I've got so far is the Nexus 5 was a bit taller. No one has said the Nexus 5 screen was sharper or clearer, they all thought they looked about the same.

Regards

Phil
[Nexus 5 General] apristel:
Porn looks so much better in 1080p. Any other questions?
[Nexus 5 General] Stay Frosty:
Sharpness aside, more resolution = more real estate on screen = less scrolling

And yes, it also means tiny text on webpages assuming you're not zoomed in, but still, if your eyesight is good, less scrolling and more things displayed at once is always a good thing.
[Nexus 5 General] PhilipL:
Hi

On the Nexus 5 I can't make the text any smaller than on the Nexus 4 (at least in FireFox) so I'm not sure how this applies. People are coming up with reasons 1080P is better without checking if this applies in reality.

On the Nexus 5 I visit the XDA website home page, I get as far as "Now Add Even More Animations to Your Apps" before I run out of screen and need to scroll. The text is small be just about readable without needing to touch the display with my nose. I can't zoom out any further, if I could the font would be extremely small anyway. On the Nexus 4 I can read to exactly the same point on the webpage before I need to scroll. Text is a very similar size, and so even though the screen is taller on the Nexus 5, it doesn't actually show me any more on one page in this case (because it is thinner in terms of aspect ratio and renders text on more than one line more often) than the Nexus 4 does.

If anyone has a Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 do the same comparison, look at them side by side and visit a variety of websites, it is quite clear that the higher resolution gives no advantage to getting more on a page.

I can only say it is I see it. I am making direct comparisons between both phones.

Regards

Phil
[Nexus 5 General] Z51:
I miss my note 3 screen. That was an awesome screen.
[Nexus 5 General] Gorgenapper:
tl;dr

Why 1080p on a 5" LCD panel? The real question is...why not? *I* can tell the difference between a 1080p 5" panel and an iPhone 5S with its vaunted 'Retina' display.
[Nexus 5 General] xXxG0dzRAgexXx:
I personally can tell a massive difference between a 720p and 1080p 5in display. It puts less strain on my eyes when I'm reading text, especially books. I can be reading a PDF completely zoomed out so one page fits the display and its very crisp and readable, but if I do that on a 720p display its completely unreadable. The biggest advantage to me is DPI scaling. I love having the DPI set to around 350 or so and everything looks insanely crisp and shows a ton more information while still being easier to read. On my HTC One the multitasking is in a 3x3 grid with an app preview in each, and in those little previews I can still read text and make out whatever other information is there. Going back to displays with about 320ppi I can undoubtedly see the pixels that make up text and it bothers me incredibly. Honestly I would have gotten a Moto X but the 720p display is nonnegotionable. If the nexus 5 had a 720p display I wouldn't have even have thought about getting it. Its just that big a difference to me.
[Nexus 5 General] Cuppeerr:
Just speaking from personal expericance I can say that I notice a difference.

I've upgraded every year, and every year the displays have gotten a little better:

I started with an evo 4g: 480x800 4.3" 217ppi at the time I was like WOW OMG

Next was the evo 3d: 460x960 4.3" 256ppi still getting better and still a noticable improvement

After the was the Evo 4g LTE: 720x1080 4.7" 313ppi making this the first trueish HD display i've had it was AMAZING.

Lastly the Htc One: 1080x1920 4.7" with an amazing 469ppi

I could definately see the different in all these phones and the screens. The only argument I could see for not wanting screens like these would be the battery life, although that's never been a problem for me
[Nexus 5 General] ghettopops:
I have both phones and took your suggestion. Although I only get slightly more information on same website page(yes it is only maybe 10%more) I do get larger text. This for me is actually a bonus.
[Nexus 5 General] peachpuff:
I considered the moto x too, loved how compact it was. Unfortunately they priced it in the same class as phones with 1080p screen and quad core soc's, imo it was overpriced.
[Nexus 5 General] rican408:
Here's the reason I don't think its overpriced. If you didn't know the specs but you only read the reviews. The fact that the experience seems to be the BEST, (battery life, features, and frame rate) nobody would complain. So far it seems to be faster than the nexus 5 since the nexus has thermal throttling problem. I think the end result is worth the price.
[Nexus 5 General] maxpower7:
Ugh....

Some people prefer 720p displays. Those people have perfectly valid reasons for their preference.

Some people prefer 1080p displays. Those people also have perfectly valid reasons for their preference.

Can we all just agree that having 4k displays on these things is a bad idea?
[Nexus 5 General] bblzd:
It's been said before but just to reiterate:

The Nexus 4 is not a 720p phone. It is 768p and a completely different aspect ratio.
[Nexus 5 General] jdh10475:
I have the HTC One 1080P - Note 3 1080P - and the Nexus 5 1080P. So I have a little experience with a 1080P and I would not want 720 again. I can tell the difference. Just my .02.
[Nexus 5 General] alias3800:
This.

I can immediately see the difference in pictures that have lots of detail (go to interfacelift.com and look at some wallpapers). I mean, really anything with small details looks 720p screens. The reality is though that the majority of people can't really tell or notice the difference. Which is OK, and really a boon for their wallets. I pixel peep the sh1t out of phones though, so I notice it. The nexus 4 (the specific one that I just had anyways) had a marvellous screen though for 720p or 768p.. pretty accurate, albeit lacking a little punch. This screen is definitely an improvement in all areas.
[Nexus 5 General] alpha-niner64:
That's something I can't agree on. This is a case where I don't think it's a "agree to disagree/different strokes/straws" scenario. There's an objective reason why more isn't better and the OP covered most of the bases. I haven't read a single valid reason for 1080 screens other than 'it looks better to me'. That's about as valid as people claiming they can hear past the 20kHz range.
[Nexus 5 General] peachpuff:
Unfortunately specs are king with android phones and that's what you pay for, imagine how well the moto x would sell if it was priced based on the value of its hardware and not on its mainly software features.
[Nexus 5 General] jsm7483:
I will gladly take the battery drain from the resolution, even though that is not always the case, since with the new Qualcomm radio I am getting drastically better battery life overall than I did with my Nexus 4.
[Nexus 5 General] alpha-niner64:
I agree. I was one of the hopefuls that really wants to get in on the Moto X because I like everything it stood for. I hope for a day where we can return to removable batteries that isn't from Samsung.
[Nexus 5 General] maxpower7:
How is "it looks better" not a valid reason for preferring one display over another?
[Nexus 5 General] alpha-niner64:
In a topic about objective information: 'preferring' isn't a valid response.
[Nexus 5 General] shoco:
1080p is a complete waste of ressources on a 5" display.

It's not that you can't tell the difference at all, it's that the difference is so negligeable compared to all the sacrifices you have to make that you can't possibly defend the trade off. Who can realistically say that a 40% battery life hit, GPU performance, and brightness hit, is worth being able to see a little better tiny fonts when you're completely zoomed out? No way.

However, I'd argue that 720p is too low for a 5", so a good compromise would be something like 1600x900, more than enough.

The bottom line is, if you think you're benefiting from that 1080p compared to a lower res display you're wrong, you're actually trading that much battery life, performance and brightness for negligeable results.
[Nexus 5 General] cas8180:
Let me simplify. More visible content in a small form factor. Period.
[Nexus 5 General] maxpower7:
If you increase the resolution without also increasing SOC power and display efficiency, then yes - those are perfectly valid points. By and large, however, the SOCs powering 1080p phones are much more powerful on average than the SOCs that were powering 720p phones. Both LCD and AMOLED technology continue to improve in efficiency as well, which has largely mitigated the power drain issues.

And, frankly, to say that someone's preference for one display over another is not "valid" somehow is ludicrous. Whether you people want to admit it or not, opinion and personal preference DOES play a huge role in this topic. It's not as simple as just saying "display A is better than display B because of (reason 1) and (reason 2)," particularly when all the points you're making have perfectly reasonable counterpoints.

Bottom line - I prefer 1080p displays over 720p displays and I can easily see the difference between the two. I haven't experienced any of your supposed "tradeoffs," all of which I find to be either completely overstated or outright irrelevant in light of the continuously improving technology that makes these things possible in the first place.

But whatever. If some of you want to keep telling me that my personal preference is wrong, knock yourself out. I've also had people on XDA try to tell me that I'm objectively wrong for preferring a touchscreen over a physical keyboard, so this is going down with more than a few grains of salt.
[Nexus 5 General] shoco:
There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Yes, current SOC are more efficient, which allows us to get roughly the same battery life now with 1080p as we did in the previous generation with 720p.

However, you could use all those improvements in the SOC without going 1080p and then reap the benefits of almost 50% more battery life, better performance, brighter displays, instead of just stagnating like we are. They're litterally throwing away all those breakthroughs in the soc department just so we can read tiny fonts a little better when it's already crystal clear.

And Samsung wants to go even further in increasing the resolution even more lol.
[Nexus 5 General] Ionakr:
this comment win!!!
[Nexus 5 General] androidfish:
Viewing the same desktop websites, zoomed out and in portrait orientation...

- On the nexus 4, some of the smaller text is unreadable.

- On the nexus 5, the same small text is readable.

So yes, I believe that a resolution higher than 720p is useful on a 5" screen (for me at least.)

Vision is complicated, and clarity may improve even if you can't resolve individual pixels.

I partly blame apple for introducing the term "retina" - it's a marketing gimmick that ignores the sheer complexity of the human visual system. There is a whole load of pre-processing that goes on in the retina, and what is ultimately sent to the brain is not just a 2D grid of pixels (a lot of optical illusions take advantage of this.)

The 326dpi limit seems to be a number picked out of thin air to suit the technology that was available to apple at the time. This is evidenced by the fact that subsequent retina displays from apple have had higher ppds (pixels per degree, a more useful measure that takes viewing distance into account.)
[Nexus 5 General] tvdang7:
I see the difference more on nexus 7 2013.
[Nexus 5 General] bptk:
4k Resolution

In my opinion. I can not wait for 4k Displays............. not for phones........ but for HMD, Augmented Reality, Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and whatever else is next.... I believe you need to become a tomorrow thinker.... when we look back at our small smart(dumb) phones and displays in the future(7-10 years from now)... we will laugh at 720p and 1080p. Almost like someone saying....... why 3-4Ghz Processors when most people use them for email, web, and word processors (Phones are taking over in that area as well).
[Nexus 5 General] TiltedAz:
That what happens when you choose to not acknowledge valid reasons. Congrats, you'll be easily pleased buying inexpensive, used smartphones from yesteryear. And save time and effort, no need to clean your phone's display as smartphone image detail is over-rated.